HCMC treated about 4,500 such cases last year, at a cost of $2.6 million

Then there are the cases that stick out - like the diabetic whose untreated toothache spread and turned into a flesh-eating infection. MacLeod said the man lost part of his chest wall and the skin on his neck, spent months in intensive care to stabilize his diabetes and got skin grafts that make it hard for him to open his mouth two years later."